Arsenal defender William Saliba avoided a red card in a costly defeat against Fulham after colliding with Harry Wilson on the edge of the penalty area.
Mikel Arteta’s side suffered a second straight defeat despite Bukayo Saka’s early boost, dealing a major blow to their Premier League title hopes. Raul Jimenez equalized before half-time after sliding in at the far post before Bobby Decodova-Reid converted a sloppy effort. defend to determine a winner. The afternoon could have been worse for the visitors after Saliba caught Wilson on the arm and brought him down on a run into the box.
Referee Josh Smith quickly called for calm and issued a yellow card to the disbelief of the home crowd, who began calling for VAR intervention. Replays show Gabriel standing by Saliba as Wilson finds his way to David Raya’s goal and saves his way to David Raya’s goal. A team member who took an early bath. As Wilson moved between the two centre-backs, Saliba counter-attacked and stemmed the momentum as his partner continued straight forward.
Immediately after the incident, social media users compared the warning to Virgil van Dijk’s red card in Liverpool’s win over Newcastle last August.
Van Dijk was then sent off for a final foul on Alexander Isak.’interesting. Saliba only received a yellow card. VVD is red for this…’ said user X. Another said: “Weirzy got a red card for the same offence.” Then the last person spoke. Saliba, as always, was lucky with VAR.The third post read: “Why didn’t Saliba get a red card? Van Dijk was sent off for the same mistake against Newcastle United. VAR robbed Fulham.
After the match, Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice criticized the team’s poor performance.”Very disappointing. “Of course it’s very hard to bear. Of course it’s not good for us today,” he said. “The last two results are not necessary. “Until the last two games we did very well. It was hard to accept because after the draw with Liverpool we thought we could continue.”
